In Brazil, where shifts in gang dynamics have created new violent hotspots, innocent bystanders are becoming victims of turf wars as criminal groups react violently to innocuous hand gestures and social media posts.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), 16 people were executed in 2024 for motives directly linked to hand gestures, up from 4 in 2023. Many of them had unwittingly posted photos with the gestures on social media.
The numbers are almost certainly an undercount due to the ambiguity surrounding many of Brazil’s homicides.
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